Happy Birthday America!

If I'm doing my math right, our country was born 234 years ago. We've come a long way since then, and although there are a multiplicity of ills and problems plagueing our country today, it's still "The greatest country on God's green earth" as Hugh Hewitt likes to say. I'm not saying that arrogantly - I'm referring to the precious freedoms that we tend to take for granted in the USA that the rest of the world does not enjoy to the level that we do in this country. The right to pursue our dreams and determine our own "destiny" regardless of who our parents are or how much money they make, what color our skin happens to be, or which religion we practice.

The right to speak our mind and voice our opinion about things without fear of violent or military retaliation against us. (I realize that, through the course of history, these rights were denied to certain individuals even within the USA based on racial, gender, and religious prejudice, but fortunately those days are mostly gone now.)

The right of free enterprise, to build our own business and not have the government control every last detail of what we are trying to accomplish and then tax the dickens out of us in the process (although this right is quietly being taken away under our very noses and not many people are aware of it).

The freedom to choose who we work for and what type of work we do. The right to get a primary and secondary education no matter what our income level. The ability to earn a place in whichever university or college we choose through hard work and dedication. The understanding that WORK is a key ingredient to success and personal happiness.

The right to attend whichever church we choose (or not attend at all).

The list could go on and on. We take so much for granted in this country. If every American could spend at least a year living in a developing country I think we would have a lot less apathy, less greed and materialism, a stronger work ethic, and a greater appreciation for the "old-fashioned" values that have made this nation a force for good in the world for so long. Most of the human population lives under governments which are various combinations of corruption (and yes, I'm well aware of the rampant corruption in our own political system), poverty, violence, tyranny, and repression. The USA is far from perfect, but thanks to the founding fathers and inspired documents like the Constitution, we The People can still speak up and determine what we do and don't want our country to be like. Not many people in the world have that opportunity, and I'm hopeful that we don't let those freedoms slip from our grasp as well. It's a gift, but it must be used wisely or it will be lost.

So anyway, three cheers for Independence Day! I helped my kids decorate their scooters for the annual 4th of July Parade in our neighborhood.

They were so excited to be in that parade!

Since I was going to be walking with them, I didn't want to take my big camera with me along the parade route. I took these pics before the parade started.

Eliza and Hazel are sporting their new clothes for the occasion, of course. Love those polka dots in the red, white, and blue!

It was a hot, HOT day yesterday, and I was a bit worried how Hazel was going to handle the parade route, but she did great!

The only challenge was trying to help her steer clear of all the other kids walking in the parade - she hasn't quite learned how to avoid running into people and she kept veering off course. I think she had a really good time though - not a single whimper or complaint from her the whole time.

At the end of the parade route they had popsicles and ice cream cups waiting for all the participants, which the kids were very excited about. You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream!

It was a welcome treat after walking along the hot pavement in the blazing sun for so long.

See the flag on Hyrum's scooter? He made it himself at school before vacation started. He did a great job lining all those stripes up and putting the 13 original stars in a circle.

That evening we joined some friends and drove up to the Air Force Memorial outside of DC to watch the fireworks. What an incredible, stunningly beautiful sculpture this is!

It's probably hard to tell from the photos, but it's really a mammoth-sized monument. I love how it looks different from every angle. It can be seen from the highway, and I used to think that it resembled whale bones more than anything. Once I learned that it represented the contrails from jets ascending in formation into the sky, though, I could appreciate it much better.

Seeing the sculpture up close was incredibly dramatic - I am completely captivated by it! Such a powerful symbol of flight.

The last rays of daylight illuminated the gleaming finish of the graceful arcs beautifully. It was simply breathtaking in real life.

We had such a great time hanging out at the park. Hazel devoured her cupcake in 3.7 seconds. Or something like that. :-)

The kids delighted in running and rolling down the steep, grassy slope surrounding the memorial. They played Old Maid and other card games, ate goodies for hours, and anxiously awaited the fireworks show.

Here's one of our friend's boys - isn't he just adorable?

This was our view of the Washington Monument from where we were sitting.

At last, dusk arrived and the spectacular show began. We were pretty far away so the fireworks were a distant display of glitter and sparkle, but it was still really fun. It was a great finale to a wonderful day.

Back at home, here is what I made for our house to commemorate the holiday. I used striped canvas fabric for the pennants, and just pinked the edges with pinking shears instead of completely finishing them. I cut the letters out of navy blue fabric with white stars and fused them onto the striped fabric with double-sided interfacing, then sewed the pennants together using bias tape.

This is a little door decoration that I painted several years ago. I used store-bought wooden stars that I painted and then glued to the wooden panel. Q-tips created the little circles.